Charlaine Harris' Club Dead is the third in her series of "Southern
Vampire" novels, preceded by Dead Until Dark and
Living Dead in Dallas, both of which were
previously reviewed for Green Man Review by my colleague Michael M. Jones. As
Michael makes clear in his well-done reviews, these books are not your
standard vampire books. The heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, a barmaid in
rural
Northern Louisiana, is self-educated from genre books and her
word-a-day
calendar. She's also a telepath, something which in general she views
as a
disability.

Sookie is not an Anita Blake clone,
though if you like Laurel K. Hamilton's books, you'll probably like
Sookie.
She's an interesting, strong and self-aware character and not at all
derivative. She struggles with her sometimes rough relationship with
"Vampire Bill" Compton, a Civil War veteran who first attracted Sookie
simply because she couldn't read his mind. That said, Club Dead,
while
quite capable of standing on its own, does suffer from "series-itis" in
that it doesn't end with all the issues solved -- the book begins with
Sookie
and Bill's relationship in trouble, and that issue isn't resolved at
the
end, though the related mysteries and murder that bookend Bill and
Sookie's
relationship are neatly tied up.

At the start of the book, Sookie is a bit miffed because she comes home
from
a hard day's work at Merlotte's bar in Bon Temps expecting to find her
vampire sweetie Bill ready to lavish her with attention, but Bill can
barely tear himself away from his computer to grunt "Hi," or even clean
up
the bottles of synthetic blood he's been drinking. It's been like that
for
the last couple of months. But then Bill is kidnapped because of a
secret
project he's been working on (for no less than the vampire Queen of
Louisiana). Sookie is convinced by Eric Northman, the vampire leader of
"Area 5" of Louisiana and Bill's boss, to go undercover and "listen" to
see
if she can pick up any leads about Bill's precise location in Jackson,
Mississippi.

He also tells Sookie that Bill has been unfaithful to
her, carrying on a clandestine affair with another vampire (and a former
amour) named Lorena, for several weeks. It's not really acceptable for
two
vampires to have a sexual relationship, but Bill apparently found Lorena
irresistible. Knowing he's been cheating on her, and had plans to
provide
for her financially when he broke off their relationship, doesn't make
Sookie feel any better about the way Bill seems to have abandoned her.
Nonetheless, she is infuriated to learn that Lorena is the one who
betrayed Eric to the Jackson vampires, whose king is keen to acquire
Bill's secret project. The king is keen enough, in fact, to have sent a
Werewolf and gang member after Sookie in a kidnap attempt that is only just
foiled by Bubba, the slightly dim vampire better known in life as a musician
from Tupelo.

In the meantime, where's Bill? ... and Lorena, for that matter?

Sookie grows as a character in Club Dead, becoming stronger physically
and
metaphysically, but largely growing as a person. She still struggles
with
ethical questions, with the reality of loving a vampire, and with her
"disability," as she still thinks of her telepathy. Harris, a talented
writer of three other mystery series, has something very unusual in
Club
Dead and the rest of the "Sookie Stackhouse" series (as Harris thinks
of
the books generally referred to as the "Southern Vampire" series).
These books, as Michael M. Jones points out (in the reviews mentioned above), are "that rarest of
mixed genres: Southern romantic vampire mystery." It's a blend that
works
in Harris' case, with a heroine who is down to earth, smart, funny and
interesting, with enough fantasy world-building in terms of genuinely
"other" vampires, Were, and shape-shifter sub-cultures to create a
believably Fey reality.